1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image composition method and apparatus, and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for composing a plurality of images into one image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, with the development of digital camera technology, digital cameras are available at a lower price than before. Additionally, with the development of integration technology, use of mobile terminals equipped with digital cameras has increased. In particular, as mobile terminals can perform visual communication, it is now common for a mobile terminal to be equipped with a digital camera.
As a mobile terminal is equipped with a digital camera, it becomes possible for the user to acquire digital images at any place at any time in his/her daily life, so that the number of images acquired by the user is exponentially increasing. In a flood of images, it is necessary to develop a technology for easily and efficiently browsing and viewing a desired image.
As a method for efficiently managing a great number of images, there is a collage image composition method. A collage image composition is a composition of a plurality of images into one image so as to be able to browse the plurality of images through the use of the one composed image.
Generally, the collage image composition uses various and complex image processing schemes and a global energy optimization method in order to compose a plurality of images into one image. For this reason, a large amount of operations are required for image composition, so that there is it is difficult to apply the conventional collage image composition technology to mobile terminals. This is because, when a conventional collage image composition is performed in a mobile terminal, too much time is required for performing complex image processing and global optimization in the mobile terminal. Moreover, when the image processing procedure is simplified, the quality of a collage image generated as a result of composition may deteriorate.